Nader Kalai and Khaled Al-Zubaidi are two Syrian businessmen with ties to the Assad regime. Through their company Zubaidi and Qalei LLC, Kalai and Al-Zubaidi are developing and managing Grand Town Tourist City, a luxury tourist development near the Damascus airport set to include, among other amenities, a shopping mall, golf course, villas, and entertainment center. The Government of Syria granted Kalai and Al-Zubaidi a mutually beneficial 45-year contract to construct and manage Grand Town Tourist City in exchange for approximately 20 percent of the project’s revenues. Additionally, Nader Kalai and Khaled Al-Zubaidi manage the country’s largest hotel, the luxury five-star Ebla Hotel, which is owned by the regime and will be part of the Grand Town Tourist City complex. The Syrian Ministry of Tourism has praised the Ebla Hotel project for benefiting both the regime and the investors and underscored its importance in the country’s reconstruction. Ebla Hotel is being designated pursuant to E.O. 13582 for being owned or controlled by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Government of Syria.
Nader Kalai and Khaled Al-Zubaidi are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13582 for having materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods and services in support of, the Government of Syria. Kalai and Al-Zubaidi are also being designated pursuant to the Caesar Act for knowingly providing significant financial, material, or technological support to, or knowingly engaging in a significant transaction with, the Government of Syria (including any entity owned or controlled by the Government of Syria) or a senior political figure of the Government of Syria.
• https://ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/topic/1571
Pursuant to the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, non-U.S. persons who knowingly provide significant financial, material, or technological support to, or knowingly engage in a significant transaction with the Government of Syria, including the CBoS, or certain other persons sanctioned with respect to Syria, risk exposure to sanctions.
Official Information
It is the policy of the United States that diplomatic and coercive economic means should be utilized to compel the government of Bashar al-Assad to halt its murderous attacks on the Syrian people and to support a transition to a government in Syria that respects the rule of law, human rights, and peaceful co-existence with its neighbors.
